Indianapolis, IN: Pacers Opening Night (Pacers vs Magic) (10/29)

In honor of the Pacers going 8-0 to start the season, I wanted to be sure to record our Opening Night experience! Opening night was the Pacers vs the Magic, and since Victor Oladipo plays for the Magic, IU made some deal to get IU faculty and staff a nice discount on seats for "Victor Oladipo Night". There was even an option to do a meet-and-great with Vic himself, but those spots filled up before I had even finished reading the email (we actually wouldn't have made it anyway because of traffic and trying to find a parking spot, so no big deal).

This was the first game I'd been to at Banker's Life Fieldhouse. I went to several games at Conseco Fieldhouse in college and not much changed when Banker's Life took over. (It's still technically a different stadium though, as I count it on my Statistics page. ;) ) It was also the first game I'd been to with my dad in years. It was awesome to get to go with both him and Eric.

The Pacers have a cool (but standard) intro. Most teams these days (at least at all the other NBA stadiums I've been to) do the whole "turn off the lights and flash bright colored lights everywhere" thing. When I was a kid, we went to a lot of Pacers games at Market Square Arena, and the coolest thing ever was Boomer coming down from the ceiling. (He never came down from the ceiling after MSA was demolished and the team moved to Conseco...the first game I went to at Conseco, I was pretty sad!)

I always try to take a picture of tip-off. I'm not sure where this compulsion comes from, but I have tip-off photos from almost every game I've been to where I've had a camera.

It was fun to see the banners up (and sorry for the blurry photo!). I'm so happy the Pacers are good again.

Victor Oladipo entered the game and immediately fouled. But then his first NBA points were on a 3-pointer, so I'm sure it all evens out.

Then there was a Steak N Shake milkshake on the court. It felt so random (obviously, it's not, since SNS is a sponsor), but it was just funny to see this dancing milkshake on a basketball court.

And THEN, the halftime show was one of the best I've seen! Obviously Boomer came out with the Power Pack and did some cool dunks. But they weren't out for very long and were soon replaced by DOGS THAT DID TRICKS. Like, really awesome tricks. I didn't think in time to take video, but I really wish I would have!

It was definitely a crowd-pleaser and super fun to watch.

The other fun thing that happened was that the cheerleaders actually came up into our section (as you can tell, we were quite high up, only a few rows from the top! I told you the tickets were cheap!). They're the ones holding the GO PACERS signs. I really want to give a shout-out to the Pacers and Pacemates for remembering the people in the nosebleed sections. We also had t-shirts and other goodies shot all the way up here during the promotion times. Almost no other place I've been has had anyone up this high, and it was so nice.

And of course, the Pacers won! That always makes going to a game that much better.

Going to a Pacers game is a fun time (they really try to make sure the fans are having a good time) and fairly inexpensive, depending on where you want to sit. They also always have promotions going. Especially for college kids, $10 Nights are a really good deal (I took advantage of these in college).

We also have tickets to "Cody Zeller Night" ;) (thanks IU!) Dec 13! This might be the first year I'll see more live NBA games than college games!